Roddick Reaches 3rd Round

Serena Williams Also Won At Wimbledon, And Amy Frazier Upset Anastasia Myskina.

June 26, 2004|By Charles Bricker Miami Bureau

WIMBLEDON, England -- Effortlessness is one thing, Andy Roddick said Friday after whisking to a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 victory against obscure Austrian Alexander Peya to reach the third round at Wimbledon.

Not playing your best tennis, he added, is another. Despite winning 17 of his past 18 grass-court matches, a streak that would leave most players in a celebratory mood, Roddick is not quite delighted with his play in his two straight-sets routs in this Grand Slam event.

Whatever the best server in the game thinks is missing, he knows he'd better find it immediately because the pushover period is over. Waiting for him today on Court 1 will be fellow American Taylor Dent.

There is nothing glaring holding back Roddick, but he is slapping a net cord here, missing wide there. He is looking for the sort of dominating streak that his rival, Roger Federer, has been on through the first two rounds.

"I'm not too worried," Roddick said. "I feel like I'm hitting the ball really well in practice. Maybe it was just getting used to the conditions. I'm still confident. It hasn't shaken me. Maybe I'm just a little anxious. I'll be all right, though."

His confrontation with Dent was assured when Dent rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Stefano Pescosolido 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) on a day when his chief weapon, his serve, was in and out.

Friday was catch-up day at Wimbledon, with perfect weather for the 10 hours of play, and that allowed the tournament to get back on schedule after much too much rain Monday through Wednesday.

Friday was also a day of high emotion, with Goran Ivanisevic, in presumably his final match at Wimbledon, losing 2-6, 3-6, 4-6 to Lleyton Hewitt.

It also was a productive day for American tennis. Second-seeded Roddick was into the third round and on a parallel course with top-seeded Federer to reach the final. He was joined by No. 5 Tim Henman, No. 8 Rainer Schuettler, No. 11 Mark Philippoussis and No. 12 Sjeng Schalken.

In the upper half of the draw, ninth-seeded Carlos Moya eased into the round of 16 with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 win against Dimitry Tursunov. In one key upset, French Open runner-up Guillermo Coria was ousted by Florian Mayer 6-4, 3-6, 3-6, 4-6.

The women's draw also had a surprise. While top-seeded Serena Williams showed no signs of being affected by her sister Venus' upset loss on Thursday, Amy Frazier beat No. 2 Anastasia Myskina, the French Open champion, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Also advancing to the round of 16 were No. 5 Lindsay Davenport, No. 11 Ai Sugiyama, No. 12 Vera Zvonareva and No. 13 Maria Sharapova.

Williams dashed past Stephanie Foretz of France 6-0, 6-4 to make the third round, then told reporters, "I'm not here to talk about Venus," when they tried to draw her into her sister's controversial upset loss.

Wimbledon officials did some communicating about the error in scoring in Venus' second-round loss to Karolina Sprem on Thursday, however. Tournament referee Alan Mills said Ted Watts, the chair umpire for the match who awarded an extra point to Sprem, won't work another match during the tournament.

Unlike the French Open, there were Americans everywhere alive in the draw with the first week almost over -- Roddick and Vince Spadea of Boca Raton, Dent, Williams, Davenport, Capriati, Frazier, and Robby Ginepri.